A treasure-seeker went into the Arabian Desert. The night before he set out on the last leg of his journey he was in an inn where he picked a fortune cookie. Within the cookie was a strip of paper rolled neatly that read, ‘Ask kindly and do not forget to thank me for the favors’. He went to the oases as darkness fell and he had no difficulty to reach the Tomb of the Unknown Traveler. He could also find the exact spot where the treasure lay hidden. A figure now sat there as if deep in prayers. With one bullet he killed him. Rudely shoving the dead aside he began digging up. He might have kept at it for a length of thirty minutes before the shovel hit some metal.
It was a box. Before he could open it a shadow fell over him. It was that of a Jinn who put such a fright into him and he fainted. By and by he recovered. The Jinn pointed out to the dead and said: “Did you ask him kindly?” The treasure hunter remembered the fortune- cookie. He managed a smile and croaked, “Too late for that.”
Before dying, out of fright to be sure, he seemed to see in that face of the dead man an uncanny resemblance to himself. He was also past hearing the words of the Jinn, who exclaimed, “Not even a thanks for the favors done to him. Does not anyone believe in a fortune cookie these days?”
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